Uptown Dallas homeowner balances glitz, glam with natural touches

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Taylor Lord Photography

Not everyone would think to pair high-glamour, metallic decor with rustic pieces, but Sarah Harmeyer did. The 30-something fund-raiser blended the two styles when outfitting her Uptown Dallas duplex to create a sophisticated living room that invites guests to cozy up. She made sure to include plenty of glitzy elements, including the glass and gold console table.

Not everyone would think to pair high-glamour, metallic decor with rustic pieces, but Sarah Harmeyer did. The 30-something fund-raiser blended the two styles when outfitting her Uptown Dallas duplex to create a sophisticated living room that invites guests to cozy up.

“I love having people in my home. I’m an entertainer,” she says. “I wanted to make sure to have a place for people to feel at home and at peace.”

When she moved to Dallas two years ago, Harmeyer sought to create a home with a youthful twist on the French country look of her previous residences. The design lover turned to Emily Johnston Larkin of EJ Interiors to achieve it.

“I have sort of an eye for design — but not quite,” Harmeyer says.

Her love affair with the French aesthetic is evident in a pair of distressed accent chairs and a slip-covered sofa, but the look gets a modern edge with accent pillows in bright shots of magenta, green and tangerine.

In fact, it was a pair of pillows that inspired the front room’s style scenario. The custom pillows in Kelly Wearstler’s popular orange-and-white trellis fabric on the slip-covered sofa kicked off the scheme.

With that splurge, which cost more than the white Ikea sofa, Harmeyer started layering on more orange. A dresser holding the room’s TV was made over in the punchy color and the addition of pretty acrylic knobs.

The orange touches play off other bright accents, including chartreuse accessories and a dramatic, velvet-covered bench. The green bench was one of several pieces Harmeyer bought new, but she had it reupholstered to better suit her style.

“I never would have thought that I could re-cover brand-new furniture without a designer’s help,” she says.

Though there are plenty of brights, a healthy dose of neutrals and metallic pieces lend serenity to the room. The golden console with glass shelves under the shuttered windows, for instance, was an indulgence, Harmeyer says, but it was a must-have element because of its glitz and modern lines.

To balance out the feminine pieces in the 1930s duplex, Harmeyer introduced textural rustic pieces. A hide rug adds dimension to the sisal in the center of the front room, and antlers rest on a silver tray. “It all just helps keep it from getting too girly and froufy,” Harmeyer says. “I like the juxtaposition of the old wood and the touches of glam.”

Harmeyer got her family involved in her home’s decor, too. In searching for a square bricklayer’s table, she found only expensive options. Her father took on the project, using 80-year-old barn wood to create a square coffee table. He helped find someone to weld and build the base and completed the project for $200. The options she found online and in stores all started at $1,000.

Her family’s and friends’ handiwork is showcased as the room’s focal point. Harmeyer, a lover of all things sentimental, took treasured letters and notes she has received throughout her life and copied them in a sepia tone to create an art grid over the sofa.

“Everyone up there is dear to me,” she says.

As the For the Love of Old book on her coffee table suggests, Harmeyer has a soft spot for antiques and aged pieces. She tries to make it to Round Top every year and get lost in “its fields and fields of treasures.” Among her finds is the tall driftwood sculpture in her living room.

“Some days, I just sit in here and think, I love this. I really do,” she says.

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